Fighting fire with fire on special training session

Cleckheaton firefighters freed a trapped woman from a car in a special training exercise to promote road safety.

Crews from Cleckheaton Fire Station’s Green Watch were tasked with freeing the trapped actress from a car, which had flipped on its side against a wall.

The car was turned over using a forklift before the exercise, which took place at Motorhog Ltd in Mirfield.

Firefighters freed the woman successfully by ripping off the driver-side car door’s hinges and cutting through its windshield and roof.

Watch manager Andy Wooler, who organised the training, said: “Our aim was to create a difficult rescue for crews to negotiate where accessing the casualty would not be straight forward.

“I have attended numerous horrific road traffic collisions where casualties have experienced serious trauma - adrenaline kicks in and you become incredibly focused on achieving the best outcome for the casualty.

“Not all incidents have had happy endings and for loved ones the result of road traffic collisions can be utterly devastating.

“Our road safety advice is to slow down, wear a seatbelt, keep your distance from the vehicle ahead and drive to the conditions, especially in the bad weather we are currently experiencing.”

The West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service were called out to 605 road crashes in 2014 and helped 224 people out of vehicles.

Of those incidents, there were 24 deaths, 467 people were sent to hospital with their injuries and 79 did not need to go to hospital.